Network management platforms exist which permit a systems administrator to connect to a set of targets in a network, and perform maintenance and diagnostic activities on that group of managed machines. The network management platform can identify individual targets via a public key or other security credential, and identify the software provisioning requirements, obtain a hardware inventory, or perform other management tasks on validated machines. In general, existing network management platforms can be hosted on a central server or other facility that permits connection to, identification, and management of the set of targets.
Existing network management platforms can be affected, however, by limitations in their network arrangement and control structure. For instance, in cases where a network management platform wishes to attempt to inspect or inventory a target machine, and/or perform diagnostics, debugging, and/or benchmarking on that machine, the native operating system or other native environment hosted on that machine can interfere with or affect the results. By the same token, the network in which the target machine is installed can have an undesired effect on a machine which is under diagnostic control, so that it may return different results than if the machine were operating in isolation, off-network. Similarly, security issues may arise if the network management platform wishes to attempt to perform low-level or sensitive tasks, such as configuring hard drive or other storage on the target machine, while that machine is exposed to the network. Thus, there is a need in the art for methods and systems that provide an ability to connect to and maintain a target machine in a network while avoiding security and operational issues, yet without having to physically disconnect the machine from its network to ensure isolation.